How to Build Your First Joomla Platform Application

This article will allow you to create your first Joomla Platform application, following a step-by-step process outlined below. We’ll assume you’re in an environment that has access to PHP (Mac OS X has this by default), and that you’ve got a connection to the Internet to download the platform project.

Step 1: Download the latest Joomla Platform

Simply point your Web browser to http://github.com/joomla/joomla-platform and then click on the “Downloads” button. In the pop-up window that appears, click on either the “Download .tar.gz” button or the “Download .zip” button, depending on your preference.

Step 2: Extract the Joomla Platform in your own environment

After you’ve downloaded the file, extract it in the location of your choosing.

Step 3: Create a new file

Create a folder named ‘examples’ within the root directory where you extracted the Joomla Platform. Using your favorite text/code editor, copy/paste code from the following examples (one at a time) into a new file. (Name the file as: ‘helloworld.php‘ or other name that you prefer).

Using your favorite CLI (maybe Terminal on the Mac, or PuTTy on Windows), navigate to the ‘examples’ folder where you saved your file. Type “php helloword.php” (or whatever you named your file) and click the enter key on your keyboard.

Step 5: Read the result on your screen, savor the moment

Step 6: Tweet your success

Tell the world that you just made your first successful Joomla Platform app by tweeting the following: “OMG, I just wrote a #jplatform app! #joomla”